Ron Moore interview on Wired.com: answers

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The Stig wrote:

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You don't have the faintest idea what really happened in the writers room and it's time that you stopped pretending otherwise.

Exactly so.

[Noname Given]

RandyS wrote:

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Agreed. This, more than anything else is what ruined (whatever small) credibility New Galactica had with me. Kara Thrace in particular was so annoying and offensive that I had a hard time taking her seriously.

^^^^
This has been my issue with nuBSG too as the series went along. This wasn't a case of 'more realistic' characters in that WERE these actually the personalities of people in positions of responsibility in the fleet the Galactica would have been disabled due to utter incompetence in a few weeks and be unable to mount or carry out military operations.

[gturner]

During the series and after I was frequently chatting with Bradley Thompson's significant other, Peggy Sue Davis, along with Mrs Ron, of course, and oddly enough Ron Moore's next-door neighbor, who became my Farmville neighbor (small world). Pretty early in season 2, as I recall, Bradley and David Weddle (who work as a team) got an offer to write for CSI Las Vegas, which was a major network show and a big step up from something like DS9 or Voyager, as far as Hollywood goes. So with Ron's whole-hearted support they took the offer, finishing season 2 and then starting on CSI. Peggy Sue ended up going to CSI: NY wrap parties where the Lieutenant Dan band played.

There wasn't much of a mystery, although who knows what other elements may have played into their decision, because any such decision would be complicated.

[Harvey]

Thompson and Weddle moved on to CSI during the long hiatus that occurred in the middle of the fourth season, due to the writer's strike, not the second. Their final credit is for writing "Sometimes a Great Notion," which was produced before the hiatus, but aired after it.

[Wereghost]

^ I think SaGN was their penultimate episode, their swansong being Someone To Watch Over Me. Memorable episode, for various reasons. Hadn't actually realised before you'd mentioned it that they'd written SaGN. Got to give them credit for that, I guess.

[gturner]

Well, I seem to have my seasons confused (It's been a while), but I'm pretty sure they knew they were switching to CSI quite some time before they left BSG. They also knew they were doing season 2 of Falling Skies pretty early in the airing of season 1.

[Harvey]

Wereghost wrote:

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^ I think SaGN was their penultimate episode, their swansong being Someone To Watch Over Me. Memorable episode, for various reasons. Hadn't actually realised before you'd mentioned it that they'd written SaGN. Got to give them credit for that, I guess.

You're right. For some reason, my eye just saw those two "S" episodes as being the same when I skimmed IMDB, but they're not.

Looking at IMDB again, it looks as if Thompson and Weddle were supervising producers (and writers) for the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica and the ninth season of CSI concurrently.

[Wereghost]

^ That could explain a lot.

[Samuel T. Cogley]

"Battlestar Galactica" is currently the third best television show of all time. (According to me, and there is no other source out there that I hold in higher regard.)

That is all.

[JirinPanthosa]

Honestly, yes. The best parts of the series were the divided fleet arc, the Pegasus arc and the New Caprica arc. The rest of season three and season four weren't as good, and the ending didn't wrap things up as neatly as I would have liked.

But they were still great television that kept me coming back every week. The only standard they failed to live up to was the one set by the earlier seasons. By TV standards it was still brilliant television.

[John Larocque]

nBSG had a really great first season and first half of the second season but then it went to pieces with the Cylons becoming bland cyphers, the infamous love rectangle, the poorly edited episodes, storylines abruptly dropped, the religious/spiritual mumbo jumbo filling in for the writers as puppetmasters of the characters, a mythology that was half-baked and ultimately went nowhere, the "Ellen/Tighe/Caprica/baby saga, the undoing of Tyrol's paternity on his son, overdosing on angst, the focus on bland politics, the increase of mediocre filler, unlikeable characters who felt less like people and more like pawns in Moore's own little personal anti-Trek experiment--although I find it ironic he pines for the good 'ol Trek days. The critical praise went straight to Moore's head and led the series to eventually become a pretentious bore. I tend to think it is highly overrated."

This used to be my point of view. I'm now rewatching the series with vastly reduced expectations and found that I still managed to enjoy most of season 3. But it's hard to watch an episode like "Resistance" where the ship is being commandeered by Adama's Cylon XO and his Cylon wife, while he's abusing the Cylon Tyrol and accusing him of being a Cylon. Cylon Tyrol's future wife then goes and shoot's Cylon Tyrol's former Cylon girlfriend. I really wonder how well they thought through the whole Dylons / All Along the Watchtower thing...

[poundpuppy29]

I enjoyed NuBSG I hope Ron Moore does more Scifi or maybe Fantasy

[Robert Maxwell]

John Larocque wrote:

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nBSG had a really great first season and first half of the second season but then it went to pieces with the Cylons becoming bland cyphers, the infamous love rectangle, the poorly edited episodes, storylines abruptly dropped, the religious/spiritual mumbo jumbo filling in for the writers as puppetmasters of the characters, a mythology that was half-baked and ultimately went nowhere, the "Ellen/Tighe/Caprica/baby saga, the undoing of Tyrol's paternity on his son, overdosing on angst, the focus on bland politics, the increase of mediocre filler, unlikeable characters who felt less like people and more like pawns in Moore's own little personal anti-Trek experiment--although I find it ironic he pines for the good 'ol Trek days. The critical praise went straight to Moore's head and led the series to eventually become a pretentious bore. I tend to think it is highly overrated."

This used to be my point of view. I'm now rewatching the series with vastly reduced expectations and found that I still managed to enjoy most of season 3. But it's hard to watch an episode like "Resistance" where the ship is being commandeered by Adama's Cylon XO and his Cylon wife, while he's abusing the Cylon Tyrol and accusing him of being a Cylon. Cylon Tyrol's future wife then goes and shoot's Cylon Tyrol's former Cylon girlfriend. I really wonder how well they thought through the whole Dylons / All Along the Watchtower thing...

I don't get what you mean. The Final Five, when amongst the fleet, had no idea they were Cylons. Personally, I think having Tigh and Tyrol turn out to be Cylons was a great move. Tigh hated Cylons, and Tyrol was afraid of being one, and then you get the whole "ick" factor from Tyrol having carried on a sexual relationship with Boomer--tantamount to having sex with his own child. I mean, come on, that's pretty messed up. I love it.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

John Larocque wrote:

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But it's hard to watch an episode like "Resistance" where the ship is being commandeered by Adama's Cylon XO and his Cylon wife, while he's abusing the Cylon Tyrol and accusing him of being a Cylon. Cylon Tyrol's future wife then goes and shoot's Cylon Tyrol's former Cylon girlfriend.

That just makes it better.

[Saul]

Hehe, never looked at it that way. The Cylons had Galactica by the balls the whole time.

John Larocque wrote:

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I really wonder how well they thought through the whole Dylons / All Along the Watchtower thing...

Gracking Dylons...